One of Compton’s finest got to turn on the win light in Bakersfield Sunday – Artis Houston took home his very first Wally in NMCA West 275 Drag Radial competition, taking out our own James Lawrence in the final round of the event. Not only that, there’s more to the story.

Before Artis even arrived at Famoso Raceway, he had to contend with a broken-down tow vehicle, and longtime friend Mark Washington bailed him out with a tow vehicle to get him to the track. He got there Friday, but spent the majority of the weekend battling wheelstand issues before finally getting the car to calm down enough to make clean hits. 

Artis, who spent four years in the early ’90’s as a California Golden Bears defensive back,  has been racing his nitrous-assisted Nova on the West Coast for years now. It’s powered by a Pettis Performance 598 cube big-block Chevy that inhales through a set of Dale Cubic’s CFM carburetors, with a set of BES‘ finest Brodix cylinder heads on top and two stages of Induction Solutions nitrous oxide aboard.

The car relies on a torque converter from Joe Rivera at Pro Torque and runs the power through a trans from Mike’s Transmissions before heading back to a rearend suspended by a set of leaf springs (!), Cal-Tracs bars from Calvert Racing, and a set of shocks from Menscer Motorsports.

The car rolls on Mickey Thompson ET Street Radial Pro tires to achieve the super-quick elapsed times. Artis has also gotten lots of help from the guys at Racecraft Inc., and is quick to talk about the assistance from all of his sponsors for helping him to get his program to where it is today. His best pass of the weekend was his final-round hit – a 7.41 at 187.70 MPH – also his quickest pass to date in this car.

After all was said and done, he was able to take home the event win on a bittersweet weekend, as his Aunt Shirley was laid to rest yesterday back in Alabama. He was also very proud to earn this win, crediting it to his father, Ralph, who passed back in 1990 but instilled the love of drag racing in him from an early age. Congratulations on your Wally, Artis!